I hardly know where to start on this topic. I created a saved game for an area of Syberia 3 that has been bugging several people. Getting the Ice Breakers working. When I get the saved game to them by email it seems to have been changed because one person that has received it says the game tells him it is corrupted. Another copy that I uploaded to my website had a .txt extension added to it. I found that out when I download it and tried to play the game with it. All I could do is start a new game, Load appeared to be an option, but would not open. and Continue was not an option. When I dropped the extension .txt from the save it worked fine. The saves for Syberia 3 appear to be log files without any extension(is this correct?). Also when I try to form a hyperlink to the file to be downloaded from the website it says can't find that page but if I do it to a text file or a screenshot they open. This used to be a simple matter for files people needed back in the early days (1997 -- 2006) but due to increased Hacking (I guess) it has made things complicated with all the increased security for this old geezer. Any suggestions my friends.

Since I don't have the game, I can't check on this, but some games save as two files - a txt file and the actual save. You would need to have both. When you go to the save games location check to be sure there aren't two files for each save.

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In my PC corner for the winter, gaming, knitting and reading.

I had thought about just giving it a .zip extension rather then actually compressing it. You think it is safer to compress it. How do I place it up on my website for download. Zipped also, but will only a hyperlink to the file work or does the hyperlink have to be placed into a page on the website. I think part of the problem is what I have forgotten or has it changed that much.

Cheers,

Bill

Hi Draclvr,

It appears to be one file, but the person I sent it to mentioned no picture in the load screen for it (he could not load it). I see only one save. I cannot find an extension for it at all. It has a very long name and I believe it contains all the info that has been done in the game or at least the last part that was just saved and a picture for the load screen. I'm sure there is only one save. I have been moving them in and out of position and as long as I have one in there everything plays ok. It opens in notepad.

I had thought about just giving it a .zip extension rather then actually compressing it. You think it is safer to compress it.

Yes. If it's being corrupted by the process of downloading, you'll know immediately when you try to unzip it.

Originally Posted By: mrbill

How do I place it up on my website for download. Zipped also, but will only a hyperlink to the file work or does the hyperlink have to be placed into a page on the website.

I don't think it matters. I've downloaded zip files both by direct link and by a hyperlink. Sometimes I need to right-click and "Save As".

Originally Posted By: mrbill

I see only one save. I cannot find an extension for it at all.

If you have display of extensions enabled in Windows, the extension should show (if it has one). Saves don't have to have file extensions -- depends on the game engine.

Originally Posted By: mrbill

It appears to be one file, but the person I sent it to mentioned no picture in the load screen for it (he could not load it).

It's possible saves aren't transferrable -- especially if you have different versions of the game. Also it's possible for games to put part of the save in the registry, or alter a 2nd game file rather than put save information in files you can see. Or there can be date information in the saves that fouls things up when you try to install a save from an earlier date on a 2nd computer. Or the save can include information about the computer the game was played on, which is even worse because it will never match up.

But if you've been trying to send the save without zipping it, try zipping it first.

That's kind of an exception though. Most 1990's games either put their saves in the game folder or in a subfolder of the game folder. Sierra tended to require a cat file in addition to the save, but it still wasn't as confusing as now.

This could be another problem for me. I use WinRAR instead of WinZip. I can place it in a Zip folder. Will this work for others with WinZip. Is a rar usable to others? Need advice or suggestions. Ohhhh Meee Ohhh Myyyy?

This could be another problem for me. I use WinRAR instead of WinZip. I can place it in a Zip folder. Will this work for others with WinZip. Is a rar usable to others?

If you are compressing the save as a rar file and then changing the extension to a zip, that won't work.I'm pretty sure WinRAR can compress to a zip. This page seems to be from 2011, but I'd expect it to still work with the current version of WinRARhttps://www.cs.sfu.ca/CourseCentral/120/ggbaker/instr/winrar

Originally Posted By: Draclvr

Something I've never been clear about... maybe you will know, Jenny100. Is it the games that now seem to save to the hidden files or is it the operating systems that do this?

It can be both. If you install a game to C:\Program Files (x86) or C:\Program Files then Windows will probably determine where to put the saves. You've probably seen this if you managed to install and run a game made for Windows 98 on Windows 7 or later -- the game originally put its saves in the game folder on Windows 98, but on Windows 7 and later the saves usually end up in some subfolder of the hidden AppData folder. If the game is made to install to some place other than the Program Files folders (like C:\GOG Games), then the saves can go to other places like a folder in the C:\Users\username\ folder.

I would guess that with a game made with a game engine designed to work on Windows 7 and later, that the game engine decides where to put the saved games. I don't know if any game engine gives the developer the option of where to put the saves. Nowadays you're lucky if your game gives you more than a single save -- a restriction that is a huge step backwards IMO.

Can it be compressed into a ZIP folder as I did or is it best to archive the file itself as a zip file?

Which do you think would be easier for the people you're sending the save to?

To unzip to get a save file (or files)

To unzip to get a folder with the save files in it

IMO it's probably better to send the file without putting it in a folder before zipping -- unless there's more than one part of the save and the parts have to go in different folders. If you can tell them "unzip the save to such-and-such folder" it's fewer steps than "unzip the save folder, then copy the contents to such-and-such folder."

As far as which type of zip is less likely to be corrupted during the sending or download process, they're the same.

If you have access to two computers capable of playing the game, try transferring the save to the other computer and see if the save works there. I am suspecting that this game won't accept saves from a different installation of the game on a different computer -- or possibly that there is another file with save installation that is necessary in order to use the save.